If you measure success in number of post match beatdowns, La Secta went 2-0. If you measure it in winning matches, 0-2. I’m very surprised Cuervo & Escoria couldn’t beat Eterno & Steve Pain themselves.

Psycho Clown finally got his pinfall…because they changed the rules so he and the rest of the Circus couldn’t screw it up any more, which is not as much as them finally figuring it out themselves. Psycho versus Texano is the first match offical for Heroes Inmortales and could be a surprise quality wise, but it’s not as a meaningful title match as previous ones.

Matches 3 and 4 were said to be very good. Arena looked to be full, at least on the side facing away from the hard camera.

Like this:

IWRG (THU) 09/05/2013Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), IWRG]
1) Fulgore II b Emperador AztecaFulgor II won with the “Super Power Boom”
2) Alan Extreme, Aliado de Dios, Astro Rey Jr. b Dragón Celestial, Fulgor I, ImposibleAlida de Dios (main show debut, from Zacatecas) and Alan Extreme replaced Mr. Leo & Seiya. Astro beat Imposible with the Dragon Cutter and asked for a title match.
3) Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo b Centvrión, Golden Magic, VenenoGringos VIP get a win before their title match.
4) Oficial 911 b Dinamic Black [IWRG Rey del Ring]Dinamic Black came in as champion, but fell on his 3rd defense. Oficial 911, in a new blue outfit, won the title back from him by taking the falls 1/3, the last with a power bomb.
5) Fuerza Guerrera, Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Tony Rivera b Black Terry, Trauma I, Trauma IIRudos took 1/3. Tony snuck in on a foul on Terry, beat him, and then challenged him.

Tonight’s CMLL show concludes this year’s CMLL Universal Tournament. One man will win, and wear a giant red/gold belt for about three weeks before CMLL forgets about the concept for another year. It can’t get bigger than that. The final is Rush versus NJPW’s Hiroshi Tanahashi. Tanahashi has played the part of the visiting rudo who may be more interested in playing air guitar than winning these matches (but still wins these matches.) Rush is all over the place, including losing a singles match to Mr. Niebla (who doesn’t hold a title) in Puebla and acting rudo-ish in other matches and on the sparsely seen En Busca de Un Idolo.

Rush would be the easy pick in a vacuum. Between a possible rudo turn and CMLL going out their (and NJPW’s) way to specifically bring in Tanahashi for this role, another result is actually possible. Rush can definitely defeat the evil foreign baddie to win the biggest tournament in CMLL and still get loudly booed by the Arena Mexico crowd, because that’s what the landscape is right now, but I’m not totally sure that is what is happening tonight.

(that said, I still picked him in the poll below.)

Tonight also has a Atlantis & La Sombra vs Volador Jr. & Ultimo Guerrero in a preview of next week’s big anniversary match. CMLL’s done nothing since the press conference to build up the tag match prior to the mask match, but they may get around to doing something here. (It won’t air on TV before the Anniversary, but they prefer photos anyway.) The undercard doesn’t have much going on, but does feature some people who won’t be on next Friday’s show.

Shocker was eliminated from his reality show. He was second out of eighteen (though about six episodes in.) It did seem like he turned back up in Mexico very fast. This is good timing – he’ll do extra interviews this week and can promote the Anniversary show. On the other hand, it’s not the greatest reason to be kicked off a reality show: the main event luchador was voted out because his knees were too injured to help his team.

Blue Demon Jr. assures us lucha libre is the best. Demon blames “Los medios” for for introducing WWE and people liking it, and says lucha libre will get back ahead by being less like the thing people seem to like.

Lucha Libre in Japan

09/06 Zero1: Billyken Kid b el Hijo del Pantera [Tenkaichi Jr., eightfinal]
Oh well. Since Pantera has been training Wrestle-1 trainees, it’s possible Hijo del Pantera is one of the mystery wrestlers on the Wrestle-1 debut card. (It’s possible Pantera is too, since he hasn’t been in IWRG in a little bit.)